JAL Flight 1628 - Full Account
When veteran pilot Captain Kenju Terauchi reported a 50-minute encounter with massive UFOs over Alaska in 1986, he expected the incident to be investigated and explained. Instead, his credibility was attacked and his career destroyed - even though FAA radar confirmed his sighting and officials found him completely credible.
Captain Kenju Terauchi had flown for Japan Airlines for 29 years without incident. On November 17, 1986, an encounter over Alaska ended his distinguished career and demonstrated just how threatening UFO witnesses can be to their own lives and livelihoods.
The Encounter Begins
JAL Flight 1628, a Boeing 747 cargo jet carrying French wine from Paris to Tokyo via Anchorage, was cruising at 35,000 feet over northeastern Alaska when Captain Terauchi and his crew noticed lights below and to the left of their aircraft. At first, they assumed it was military traffic - the area saw frequent Air Force activity.
But the lights weren’t behaving like any aircraft. They paced the 747 for several minutes, then suddenly moved directly in front of the cockpit, startling the crew with their brilliant illumination. Terauchi described two rectangular arrays of lights, each appearing to glow with what he called the intensity of jet exhaust. The cockpit was so brightly lit that he could feel warmth on his face.
The Mothership
What happened next elevated the sighting from unusual to extraordinary. As the initial objects moved away, an enormous dark mass became visible behind the 747. Terauchi, struggling to describe what he was seeing, estimated the object to be the size of two aircraft carriers. It was walnut-shaped and massive beyond anything he had ever seen in nearly three decades of flying.
The object paced the aircraft for nearly 50 minutes, sometimes moving alongside, sometimes behind. Throughout the encounter, Terauchi maintained professional communication with FAA air traffic control in Anchorage, who confirmed that they were also tracking an unidentified return near his position.
The Investigation
The FAA conducted a thorough investigation. Officials interviewed all three crew members, obtained radar data, and reviewed communication transcripts. The internal conclusion was that Terauchi was credible and something genuinely anomalous had occurred. But when the story leaked to the press, the agency’s public position shifted dramatically.
Initial FAA findings supported the crew’s account. After media attention, the agency began suggesting “ice crystals” and misidentified planets. Captain Terauchi was removed from his flight duties. JAL reassigned him to a desk job.
The Cost
Terauchi paid dearly for his honesty. Despite having an impeccable record, despite the radar confirmation, despite the other crew members supporting his account, he was effectively punished for reporting what he saw. His subsequent career was spent behind a desk rather than in a cockpit.
The JAL 1628 case illustrates a pattern that researchers have documented repeatedly - credible witnesses who report UFO encounters often face professional and personal consequences. This chilling effect undoubtedly keeps countless other witnesses silent, raising the question of how many similar incidents go unreported every year.